Abstemiousness

“ But, perhaps, after all, this man is misrepresented by his mouth; great eaters have been known to be little, thin, shrivelled persons; while fat men have been supported, ere now, upon two spare meals a-day: more would seem to depend upon the activity of the internal machine, than upon its outward capacity. Who Knows but this man, with all his corporeal size and large mouth, may turn out a perfect example of abstemiousness? The question was one of deep concernment, and I continued to consider it till it was announced that supper was ready. ”

“ It moderates by avoiding both defect and excess in meals as to time, place, quantity, quality, etc. There is not, then, one standard amount of food for all, since the needs and duties of all are not the same, and hence he who takes more or less than is normal or usual cannot from that alone be accused of being unabstemious. Neither is the mean for an individual so rigidly fixed as not to permit some latitude within certain limits. It should be noted here too that abstemiousness is not the same thing as abstinence. ”

“ From which it is manifest, that abstinence from particular kinds of food, especially such as are more pleasing to flesh and blood, and more nourishing to the body, whether continually or for a time, is most agreeable to religion and to the word of God ”

“ These, and other abstemious people, who, having experienced the greatest extremities of bad health, were driven to temperance as their last resource, may run out in praises of a simple diet; but the probability is, that nothing but the dread of former sufferings could have given them the resolution to persevere in so strict a course of abstinence, which persons who are in health and have no such apprehension could not be induced to undertake, or, if they did, would not long continue. ”

“ But even if our food be the commonest, we must avoid repletion. For nothing is so destructive to the mind as a full belly, fermenting like a wine vat and giving forth its gases on all sides. What sort of fasting is it, or what refreshment is there after fasting, when we are blown out with yesterday's dinner, and our [2] stomach is made a factory for the closet? We wish to get credit for protracted abstinence, and all the while we devour so much that a day and a night can scarcely digest it. ”

“ We know indeed, dearly-beloved, your devotion to be so warm that in the fasting, which is the forerunner of the Lord’s Easter, many of you will have forestalled our exhortations. But because the right practice of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind, we desire your observance to be so complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that belong to the lusts of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations of the heart. ”

“ Abstinence from two meals has become natural enough to require no self-denial whatever, and in the course of time a fasting-cure expert can tackle the task of a two-days' term of total abstinence almost without a presentiment of discomfort. ”

“ I too am at the top of my condition for perceiving beauty. Thus, long after feeding, the diviner faculties begin to be fed, to feel their oats, their nutriment, and are not oppressed by the belly’s load. It is abstinence from loading the belly anew until the brain and divine faculties have felt their vigor. Not till some hours does my food invigorate my brain,—ascendeth into the brain. We practice at this hour an involuntary abstinence. We are comparatively chaste and temperate as Eve herself; the nutriment is just reaching the brain. Every sound is music now. ”

“ Has Nature indeed given us so insatiable a stomach, while she has given us so insignificant bodies? No: it is not the hunger of our stomachs, but insatiable covetousness (ambitio) which costs so much. The slaves of the belly (as says Sallust) are to be counted in the number of the lower animals, not of men. Nay, not of them, but rather of the dead.... You might inscribe on their doors, ‘These have anticipated death.’”— (Ep. lx.)
The extreme difficulty of abstinence is oftentimes alleged:—
“It is disagreeable, you say, to abstain from the pleasures of the customary diet. ”

“ As excess in sexual indulgence impairs the generative power, no less injurious may entire abstinence be considered. The due exercise of an organ tends to its perfection, as the neglect or misuse of it, to its impairment. ”

“ Cases of prolonged abstinence often occur among the insane, who, under the influence of delusions, or in order to destroy their lives refuse all food. Dr. Willan relates the case of a young man, who, through delusions, refused all food but a little orange juice, and who lived for sixty days on this alone.
Of course such persons, if under the observation of a physician, could be fed forcibly, but through the ignorance of friends or relatives it not unfrequently happens that medical aid is not invoked in time, and serious symptoms, or even death itself, may result. ”

“ A great many are inclined to think of abstinence as representing abstinence from food alone, but it must not be forgotten that as understood in connection with religion it represents abstinence from all the harmful things. For instance, it represents abstinence from sleep when that is being taken to excess, and as a rule any healthy human being above the age of twenty and under sixty who sleeps more than eight hours in the day needs to practice such abstinence. There is literally such a thing as oversleeping and thus accumulating more energy than one has use for. ”

“ I scarcely know how to fast; I shrink from this cross; I behold so few fasting that I excuse myself through the general neglect, or soften the interpretation of Thy words. I desire to amend, to practise abstinence in things allowed, that from things not allowed I may the more easily abstain, that I may have a more docile and obedient will, that in great matters I may the more easily resist the motions of the flesh. ”

“ For, in the constitution of man, abstinence may enervate, weaken, and kill. And there are many other ills, different from those of repletion, but no less dreadful, arising from deficiency of food; wherefore the practice in those cases is more varied, and requires greater accuracy. For one must aim at attaining a certain measure, and yet this measure admits neither weight nor calculation of any kind, by which it may be accurately determined, unless it be the sensation of the body ”

“ I do not know however if in those to which many cerebral nerves go, it does not take place; for example, when the stomach has been for a long time contracted, it is probable that the lassitude of its fibres, produces in part the painful sensation that we then have, and which we call hunger, a sensation that should be distinguished from the general affection that succeeds it, and which becomes truly a disease, when abstinence has been too much prolonged. ”

“ Men of genius, and persons who lead sedentary lives, are more especially benefited by occasional abstinence; as these, from the want of vigorous exercise, and their intense application, are generally the severest sufferers from diseases of repletion. In the observance of the rules of abstinence, due attention must always be paid to the age, strength, constitution, and habit of the patient. ”

“ You have asked God to give you grace to use abstinence. Now what is the meaning of abstinence? Abstinence means abstaining, refraining, keeping back of your own will from doing something which you might do. Take an example. When a man for his health’s sake, or his purse’s sake, or any other good reason, drinks less liquor than he might if he chose, he abstains from liquor. He uses abstinence about liquor. There are other things in which a man may abstain. Indeed, he may abstain from doing anything he likes. He may abstain from eating too much; from lying in bed too long ”

“ It sometimes happens, if the constitution be scrofulous, 381the mind much harrassed, or the treatment not at first vigilant, that a very protracted, and even fatal disease, may result. The patient has repeated and almost daily shivering fits, followed by heat and perspiration, and accompanied with induration or sinuses in the breasts. She loses her appetite, and is constantly sick. Suppuration slowly forms, and perhaps the abscess bursts, after which the symptoms abate, but are soon renewed, and resist all internal and general remedies. ”

“ I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself. I am bound to add that the excess in too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death. ”

“ I answer that, Habit and act have the same matter. Wherefore every virtuous act about some particular matter belongs to the virtue that appoints the mean in that matter. Now fasting is concerned with food, wherein the mean is appointed by abstinence. Wherefore it is evident that fasting is an act of abstinence. ”

“ A man may be injuring his health through a deficiency in the amount either of the heat-forming or of the flesh-forming food which he consumes, and yet know nothing of the origin of the mischief. It may also be noted that systematic abstinence, either as respects quantity or quality of food, is much more dangerous than an occasional fast. ”

“ Should the person so affected not give way to his desire, he runs the danger, by this enforced abstinence, of injuring his nervous system by the induction of neurasthenia, or of seriously aggravating neurasthenia that already exists. ”

“ I would rather that almost any physical disaster should befall me than that I ever achieve an 'abdomen.' When an abdomen comes in at the door life's romances fly fast out the windows: so it looks to me. May death overtake me haply before the menopause. ”

“ For, first, abstinence pays in ready money the pain which it has in the beginning; for it tempers the body — it preserves from infirmities — it preserves health — it prolongs the life — it recreates the soul, it renders it fit for prayer and receiving celestial comforts— it takes away the arms of its enemy the flesh, and subjects it to the spirit, to encourage it to undertake glorious enterprises in the service of God. ”

“ A gentleman, who had occasion to reside for some time in a city in the West of England, was one night seized with a distressing but indescribable pain in the region of the abdomen and of the stomach, accompanied with a feeling of tension, which occasioned much restlessness, anxiety, and repugnance to food. ”

“ The other group – embracing the majority of male ascetics – curses him because he never leaves them in peace."
Approaching the subject in a more modern and scientific attitude of impartial inquiry, the medical man can produce an imposing list of diseases [1] more or less directly caused by abstinence both in men and in women. ”

“ With a few judicious experiments in daily regimen, and a little abstinence now and then, he can subdue head-aches, catarrhs and digestive troubles, and by exercising an intelligent will, can generally prevent their recurrence. ”

“ Whereas on the hypothesis that the abstinences in question, including those from food, drink, and sleep, are merely salutary precautions for maintaining the men in health and strength to do their work, it is obvious that the observance of these abstinences or taboos after the work is done, that is, when the game is killed and the fish caught, must be wholly superfluous, absurd, and inexplicable. ”

“ And when one particular portion of the body, an organ, is principally affected, when the disease has there manifested itself, as we say, shall we be far wrong in saying that it is a kind of crisis? It would be just what happens, only more evidently, in those fevers which terminate in a critical abscess. ”

“ But I am led here to remark, how very much better, under such circumstances, it would be to employ fasting, or, at least, a proper degree of abstinence, and the other measures calculated to keep off too great fullness of the body. Nothing in the world is easier—provided a woman has sufficient control over herself, and perseverance—than to vary to any desirable extent, the quantity of blood in the system ”

“ In the same way, impress, force home on your stomach, your heart, your liver, or any other bodily organ the conviction that it is inefficient, weak, good for nothing, and in addition swallow a mouthful of mental dyspepsia with every mouthful of food, and, sooner or later, it will accept your verdict and be just what you claim it is. ”

“ A strange compression and constriction of the stomach, sharp pains like the stab of a knife beneath the shoulder-blades, perpetual restlessness, an apparent prolongation of time, so much so that it seemed the day would never come to a close, an incapacity of fixing the attention upon any subject whatever, wandering pains over the whole body, the jaw, whenever moved, making a loud noise, constant iritability of mind and increased sensibility to cold, with alternations of hot flushes, were some of the phenomena which manifested themselves at this stage of the process. ”

“ The complaint is made by those whose lives have been far otherwise than continent, that abstinence occasions suffering, from which indulgence gives relief. The same writer further says that when such a patient consults a medical man, "he should be told—and the result would soon prove the correctness of the advice—that attention to diet, gymnastic exercise, and self-control, will, most effectually relieve the symptoms." ”

“ If this abstinence is continued for some time, the diminution becomes apparent to the eye; all the fat of the body disappears, the muscles decrease in firmness and bulk, and, if the animal is allowed to die starved, scarcely anything but skin, tendon, and bones, remain. ”